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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

On April 18, 2012 in Copenhagen, William Lane Craig debated philosopher Klemens Kappel on the topic: Does God Exist? Video of the debate can be found here, and video of the Q&A can be found here on YouTube. Full audio debate with Q&A below.

I've written a summary and commentary on this debate on my blog. You can check it out here if you're interested: http://dubitodeus.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/william-lane-craig-vs-klemens-kappel-summary-and-commentary/

These debates are becoming less and less interesting. Craig's opponents increasingly seem unable or unwilling to participate with any sort of sincerity.

Kappel comes across as, not only unprepared, but completely taken aback by the seriousness that Craig takes in handling the debate - as if he's baffled as to why anyone even cares. It came across as though his 2nd rebuttal was more of a cop out attempt as he perhaps realized he had nothing to bring to the discussion.

Dr. Craig's visit to Copenhagen was part of his Scandinavian speaking tour. He visited Finland a few days earlier. In Helsinki he debated cosmologist Kari Enqvist. The topic was "Can the Universe Exist Without God". You may see the debate at Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prYeIU0NrSY&feature=share. In contrast to Kappel, prof. Enqvist was prepared - at least to some extent.

One thing I did like about this debate was the decent time allotted for q&a. Seems most give 10-15 minutes and you can hardly get anything substantive in.

I wish more debates would follow that format. It may go longer but its the only time you can hear the debaters actually engage each other a bit more - especially in debates like this one where the opponent simply ignores and seemingly refuses to present any material whatsoever.